New Housing Coming to Southwest Philadelphia For Veterans in Need
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- New, "supportive" housing exclusively for US military veterans was unveiled today in Southwest Philadelphia.
Such developments have helped drastically reduce the number of homeless vets.
Work is still underway at the Hardy Williams Veterans Center. Construction is expected to be completed in January and veterans, aged 55 and older, should begin moving into the sixty one-bedroom apartments in February.
But US Rep. Bob Brady (D-Pa., second from right in photo below) says dedicating the project on Veterans' Day sends a message:
"Let these men and women that have fought the war and men and women that are actually fighting the wars -- as we speak, in harm's way -- let them know that we're going to welcome them back and have them have a place to live and a decent place to live."
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Homelessness among veterans -- peaking at about 68,000 -- has been a current problem since troops began coming home from Iraq.
Tom Hameline of the housing nonprofit "Help USA," which developed the center, says the number of homeless vets is down to 40,000 because of HUD and VA funding for projects like this.
"There's a lot of goodwill and a lot of funding for veterans these days," he notes.